Why Marx obliged to use dialectical logic? Wu Kuan

Alexander Klein
Why is Marx obliged to use dialectical logic when examining the historical process? Post by Wu Kuan

1.

A father says to his daughter:
— It seems you have forgotten your home.
Daughter:
— My home is where my husband is.

One "order" cannot pass into another "order" according to the laws of formal logic, — since it always passes through a "violation of order".

One order can pass into another only according to the laws of dialectical logic. Only according to the laws of that logic, where a violation of order is not a "violation of logic".

About this, using Marx and social progress as an example — Wu Kuan's article on FB https://www.facebook.com/VuQuan23 — a closed post, I duplicate it here:

Vu Quan
16.10.24

Why Marx used dialectical logic as the logical foundation for the critique of capitalistic society?

"In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production..." (K. Marx, Preface to A contribution to the Critique of Political Economy)

For Marx, human society is led by the motive of history. From the monarchy to the bourgeoisie, each one implies certain social norms and orders. The relations of production is the logic that determines how we, as (part of) society, should treat each other and organize our lives. Along history, society produces the idea as if we own something to ourselves. It is the idea of private ownership.

The idea of private ownership advocates freedom, and freedom promotes the practice for progress. But the formal logic allows not just freedom, but also the freedom of the violation of freedom. Sooner or later, the former ensures the latter because the formal logic excludes the choice which alters the order of things. Our consciousness is limited into the viscious circle. Only with dialectical logic could the human society find the paradox of growth and progress in history.

What is something that dialectical logic offers to the understanding of history?
It is the emancipation (freedom of rights) for the working class.

The working class is another term Marx used to explain how society can maintain itself and not collapse. It is the force which produces the existence of society. Freedom of rights means the expansion of consciousness. Society as a whole will transform the productive relations and overcome the paradox of private ownership to human society.

The logic Marx proposed: from each according to one's ability and to each acording to one's need is dialectical, because it contains the particular and the general precisely, which allows room for freedom and promotes practice for progress. Whereas the scope of the formal one refuses to recognise.

...

My comment under the post:

"The idea of private ownership advocates freedom, and freedom promotes the practice for progress. But the formal logic allows not just freedom, but also the freedom of the violation of freedom. Sooner or later, the former ensures the latter". - Bravo!

"...the formal logic excludes the choice which alters the order of things". - Bravo!!!

"Our consciousness is limited into the viscious circle. Only with dialectical logic could the human society find the paradox of growth and progress in history". - Bravo.

"The working class is... the force which produces the existence of society. Freedom of rights (for the working class) means the expansion of [society] consciousness. [It is in this way that] society as will transform the productive relations and overcome the paradox of private ownership to human society". - Bravo!

"The logic proposed by Marx: from each according to his ability and to each according to his needs..." — After these words, I would write this to develop your thought:

...is the only logic when "private ownership" ceases to exist. The distinctive feature of Marx's logic is that it cancels the previous logic, which only seems reasonable (from each according to his ability, to each according to his work), but is already unreasonable, since it contains goods, market, money, capitalist production, crises, pollution of the environment, the danger of nuclear annihilation. The danger of this unreasonableness grows as the capitalist economy progresses. Formal logic excludes choice that changes the order of things. Dialectical logic is needed, which changes the order of things.


2.

Hello, Wu Kuan!

I am still pondering the discovery you made. For me it sounds like this:

The transition from one order to another cannot take place within the framework of formal logic. In formal logic, this transition always looks like a "violation of order", a "crime".

But there is no other way. The replacement of one order by another is always a crime against the existing order. (And, as a particularity, the change of order is always accompanied by abuses).

In formal logic, there is only "order" and its opposite - "violation of order". There is no third.

But in life, a "new order" always arises. Any victorious "violation" becomes a "new order". Formal logic is powerless here, from its position, "violation" is not "order", and never will be. And here we must choose: either life - or formal logic. Or compliance with life - or compliance with formal logic.

Dialectical logic solves this "paradox". A change of order, i.e. its violation, which becomes a new order, does not contradict dialectical logic. There is no need to choose "either the truth of life - or the truth of logic", because dialectical logic considers "violation" as "violation and at the same time non-violation, i.e. order".

And then, in the space of dialectical logic, “violation of order” becomes a full-fledged “order”, i.e. it is equated with “order”.

It is for this reason that dialectical logic is a necessity when considering the historical process (as well as any process of change). It is for this reason that only dialectical logic can give a complete picture of the historical process, including an adequate assessment of historical events.


Alexander Klein
October 17, 2024
Illustration: Wu Kuan and Marx (Eng). Kl. 10/22/24


Texts in English by Alexander Klein - А. Клейн
http://proza.ru/avtor/klein0&book=13#13